Faculty and Staff Information

The population of students with disabilities attending college continues to grow. The DSS staff is available to answer any questions faculty and staff may have about working with students with disabilities and providing accommodations. Below are resources to assist you in instructing students with disabilities.

General Info

​Students with disabilities are not automatically eligible for services that they received in high school; they must have a meeting with a DSS advisor to establish eligibility.

Faculty should not ask students if they have disabilities. Students are responsible for disclosing this information. A student's disability information is confidential, and not to be shared with other students or instructors.

Students working with the DSS office are responsible for demonstrating the same course competencies as all students.

Each term, students working with DSS should submit an instructor letter, confirming they are working with the DSS office. Instructors should encourage students to schedule a meeting during office hours to discuss their accommodations.

Students do not need to see a counselor in DSS before being able to meet with a Mental Health Counselor. Mental Health Counseling is a service provided to all TCC students.

DSS Testing

​Students taking tests and quizzes in the DSS testing center must provide the testing center with at least 2 school days’ notice. Faculty and staff should be aware that students cannot come to an instructor the day of a test to request accommodations.

After a student requests a test, the DSS Testing center will send a test request directly to the instructor. Tests can be delivered, picked up, or emailed to the testing center.

Instructors who plan to give an unannounced quiz in class, should consider sending the quiz to the DSS testing center several days in advance, so that students will still have access to their accommodations. Instructors are also encouraged to consider how extended time may affect students' ability to fully participate in the class after a quiz.

Designing Accessible Online Courses:

Interpreters

​Please remember that a sign language interpreter is not a tutor or an instructor, she or he is only there as a conduit to your lesson. At the beginning of any term that you have a deaf student in your class, you will receive information on working with an interpreter.

Here are some things to remember:

If you have a lot of content specific vocabulary, consider sending that to the interpreter 2-3 weeks in advance, so that they can be sure to know the signs for those words

Try to pace your speech normally. As long as you are not speaking very quickly, the interpreter will communicate to the student. You do not need to significantly slow down speech.

If you are using videos in class, please work with the Center for Distance Learning to make sure that they are captioned. Captioning videos reduces physical strain on interpreters, and provides equal access to content in media.